There’s A Piece Of You In How I Dress
For as long as we can remember, fashion has been heavily influenced by the celebrities of the era. Whether it’s on purpose, through paid advertisements, or just an appreciation of someones individual style choices, those with large followings undoubtedly have an influence on the fashion world. The likes of Bowie, Prince and Cher come to mind; even decades later, they are admired and imitated. In the past few years, Harry Styles has likewise made a name for himself in this department, not only to his loyal fans, but among giants in the fashion world. In a recent interview, Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele said that it is “a shame we don’t get to see the outfits he chose for Love On Tour”. I have to fully agree, how do you mourn clothes, let alone clothes you’ve never even seen before? He also recently had one of his suits added to the Rock Hall of Fame museum; the royal blue velvet Gucci suit he wore while inducting Stevie Knicks is now on show alongside the outfits of decades of rock icons, almost cementing his place as an influential style symbol.
He has made many interesting choices with his styles, pun intended. Personally, I have loved all of them. His extensive collection of brightly coloured, flamboyant and sometimes sparkly suits are some of the most captivating stage outfits today, and fans adore them. There are entire etsy stores dedicated to pictures of his suits alone on enamel pins, tote bags, watercolour paintings and whatever else you can name. It is quite the phenomenon.
Fans of Harry Styles are also experts in mirroring his style; it is a flattering show of admiration in which they recreate their favourites of his looks, or just adopt small aspects of his style into their daily choices. For example, many fans adore the big trousers he adorns in the artwork for his sophomore album ‘Fine Line’, especially since these big trousers have become a staple for him recently. Another example is pearl necklaces. Numerous fans loved his choice of jewellery for the Brits 2020 red carpet and have added pearl accents to their wardrobe. He recently wore a customised Éliou pearl and blue bead necklace; it gained so much traction and was such a topic of conversation, that the brand has now put it on sale and named the necklace after him. Co-founder of Éliou spoke to refinery29, saying that “there was such an insane spark of interest after he wore it that it only seemed fair to name it after him”. The ‘HARRY NECKLACE’ now retails on their site for $85. The examples are endless; his ‘GOLDEN’ bead necklace, his ‘BUT DADDY I LOVE HIM’ top, even his shade of nail colour. They are parts of Harry, flickering around the globe like candle light.
One of his recent styling choices, however, has sparked an even stronger captivation from fans, inspiring creativity in lockdown. The custom, one of a kind, JW Anderson cardigan that Harry wore while rehearsing for the Today Show in NYC is an oversized, crocheted piece in rainbow colours. Fans immediately loved it and, once they discovered it was priced at over $1500, decided to start making their own.
One of the first to recreate the cardigan was the creator @lilbittylivie on the platform tiktok; her video showing the process and outcome has reached over 3 million views. Now, if you type in any variation of ‘harry styles cardigan’ onto tiktok, you will be able to find an endless amount of videos of fans attempting to make their own. JW Anderson has now, after learning of the love that the cardigan has received, released the knit pattern with exact details on how to recreate it. He said that Harry in fact sent the cardigan back so that they could make sure the pattern guide was perfect; I believe this shows that Harry enjoys his supporters emulating his style. His stylist and good friend, Harry Lambert, phrased it nicely in a recent interview. He said, using the example of the pearl necklaces, when fans wear them it is “almost like a part of Harry” is with them.
So when I wear my recreation of the cardigan (thank you to Jenny at church for making it for me, I am forever indebted), I’ll feel like a part of Harry is with me, and in a year such as this, that is a comforting feeling.
